She received her Ph.D. in American History from Stanford University in 1986. She specializes in the historical and contemporary study of work, social movements, and social policy in the United States and globally.

Professor Cobble has written numerous articles for anthologies, scholarly journals, general interest magazines, newspapers, and on-line sites. Her essays are frequently reprinted and have been translated into Italian, Swedish, Japanese, and French. She is the recipient of fellowships and research funding from the Russell Sage Foundation, the Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History at Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the U. S. Department of Labor, and other sources. She is also an Organization of American Historians (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer, a position that enables her to speak to diverse audiences across the country hosted by colleges, historical societies, museums, and teacher workshops.

Currently she is writing on global working women’s movements and on the U.S. labor movement’s contribution to the rise of American social democracy. She is also completing a biography of consumer, labor, and women’s rights activist Esther Peterson. Professor Cobble is an editor of the journal International Labor and Working-Class History, published by Cambridge University Press.